Review - Just Back From Jewel Med Cruise 23rd July

[Rosie Cruzin]

We have just returned from this cruise that sailed on the 23rd of July. We stayed for one night in Barcelona which was a very interesting city. The only thing to be concerned about are the pick pockets, we met a chap who had his wallet stolen in Las Ramblas. You need to be particularly careful of 'friendly' people approaching you for a chat or even firing water pistols in the air. By the time you have looked up your wallet has gone! If you're careful though it's a safe and beautiful city. We boarded the Jewel at about 1:00pm on Sunday and the whole process took about 20 to 30 minutes. You'll be issued with a keycard (like a credit card) for each of the guest including any children. This keycards are very important as you will need them when dining, booking restaurant places and when leaving and arriving back on the ship from excursions. Our room was an ocean view room on Deck 5 port side. It was roomy and our daughter loved the bunk bed that was safe and secure. We have read comments that it is better to be on the starboard side so that you can see the ports as you approach in the morning. Well, unless you get up at 5:00am you want see much except for container lorries and the dock yard once the ship has docked. We preferred the port side as it's quiet (no noise from the dockyard) you can see other ships etc passing and lots of the surrounding port areas. We even saw other cruise ships pass by our window when we were in the dock.

 

All though we loved 99% of the cruise our biggest disappointment was the noise that we heard from neighboring cabins. We could hear everything, talking, doors closing, TV the lot. This was quite a problem particularly when getting up early for an excursion when you have been awakened by your neighbors returning to the room at 1:30 am.

 

The make up of the other cruisers appeared to be about 40% USA, 10% British, German and Japanese and about 50% Spanish. We went just after the kids had finished school so the pool area was packed out, but our daughter loved the pool even though it was very busy.

The decor of the ship was excellent if a bit loud and the ship was very clean.

 

We dined at the Tzar's Palace which was very nice and situated with great ocean views at the rear of the ship. Mama's Italian restaurant which was very good. Tango's which was my wifes favorite and Chin Chins which I liked. The food in all of the restaurants was very good. The only place we didn't really like was the Garden Café which was always busy and noisy a bit like a British Motorway Service Station. We preferred to get up a bit earlier and go to the Tzar's Palace for breakfast.We booked three of our tables in advance and had no problems at all, other times we just turned up at about 7:30pm and had a table within 5 minutes.

We also went to 2 shows the Band on the Run which was very good and a magician who was also very good ( sorry can't remember his name).

 

Excursions & Ports:-

 

Messina - We didn't take an excursion here just had a pleasant stroll around Messina itself, there was a carnival cruise ship docked at the same time as the Jewel and from the hills around Messina both ships looked very impressive side by side.

 

Naples - We took the the Taste & Treasures of Naples excursion. It was very good we drove into the center of Naples ( the traffic is something to behold) and stopped at the Naples San Gennaro Museum and Cathedral. This was a beautiful place with loads of history and ancient artefact's made from silver and gold - outstanding! We then walked through very small streets in the heart of the city to a point where we had about 45 Min's on our own. There are loads of small booths and shops selling loads of souvenirs and gifts. Scooters and even cars travel up and down theses narrow streets so keep your eyes open! The tour guide said that in Italy you get your driving license taken away from you when you reach 21 points but that the Neapolitans start at 20 points!!

We then rejoined the tour and made our way to for Pizza at a restaurant where wine and ample helpings of Pizza were available as part of the excursion package. We then made our way back to the ship. The tour was about 4 and half hours which was just about right with our six year old daughter who enjoyed the tour as well.

 

We cruised passed Stromboli Volcano in the evening. Lots of people were on deck and after about an half hour wait we saw the Volcano errupt with lava pouring down its side and spurting out of the top of the volcano. It was very spectacular and a site that you won't see too often!

 

We didn't travel to Rome the following day as we thought it was a bit too far with our daughter. So we spent a leisurely day swimming in the pool playing board games in the games room and exploring the ship as there is so much to see on board.

 

Livorno - We took the Italian Beach & Pisa tour which our daughter really enjoyed. This is a whole day tour, you travel by coach to Pisa in the morning which takes about 40 minutes and have about an hour to explore. It wasn't too busy so you could take your time viewing the magnificent leaning tower along with the other equally impressive buildings and site. We then drove to Viarreggio which took about 30 minutes. At Viareggio which is popular today, both with Italians and foreign visitors, there is a beach house where you can relax and eat as well as lots of shops in the area, most of which close between 1:30 and 4:00pm. You are given a token that gives you access to a part of the beach that is allocated to NCL. You have your own beach umbrella and are given pool caps to cover your hair if you use the beach clubs pool (the caps are compulsory in Italy). We went in the sea which was really warm and also spent time in the pools which were so much quieter and relaxing than the ships pool. This was our daughters favorite day of the cruise.

 

Villefranche-sur-Mer - This is a very attractive port on the Côte d'Azur. A couple of features that make it attractive to visitors are the seaside, with long sandy Beach's, terrace cafés and restaurants, and the very nice old town. We took the 4 hour Highlights of Monaco & Monte Carlo tour. Wow! what can I say, how the other half live! This was a very good tour although the French lady in charge was a bit disorganized in arranging meeting points and times in both Monaco and Monte Carlo. We amongst other guests nearly missed the coach in Monaco as she (the tour guide) just disappeared and we were left to make a mad rush to the coach. On other excursions the tour guides wrote everyones names down and ticked everyone off the list before the coach left for the return journey to the ship. On this excursion there was uncertainty as to who was or wasn't missing. Anyway, the coastline in this area is breathtaking with small coves and the Alps themselves falling into the sea. We first went to Monaco and started the tour outside Jacques Cousteau's Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, we then made our way to the Cathedral were the 700 year reign of the Grimaldi dynasty is encapsulated. This is were Princess Grace is laid to rest next to Prince Raynier. We then moved on to the old fortified town, with the Prince's Palace, the ramparts, which are about 5 minutes walk from the Cathedral. This again was spectacular with views over Monaco and Monte Carlo in the near distance. After about 30 minutes we traveled to Monte Carlo to view the riches of the famous Casino and the luxurious Hotel de Paris which was surrounded by Rolls Royce's, Bentleys and Ferrari's! This was a beautiful and clean place that we will definitely return to.

We then returned to the ship by coach and boarded one of the small lifeboats back to the Jewel (as the Ships drops anchor in the bay itself).

The holiday was almost over, the disembarkation from the ship was very well organized. You are given colored tags for your luggage dark green , red tags etc. In the morning they call people with green tags etc to leave at certain times. The whole process was simple and efficient. You collect your bags from the dock yard and head for the coach. This is for us when it all went down hill!

We were supposed to be on coach 6 that didn't appear to exist so we eventually ended up on coach 17 for our transfer to the airport. We were we were dumped on the sidewalk outside the Barcelona airport terminal. We entered the airport to be confronted by a completely chaotic scenes with thousands people waiting to check in. There had been a strike ongoing for a few days. We had no warning of this from NCL at all and were basically left to fend for ourselves. We were traveling to Manchester in the UK with Lufthansa via Hamburg. The Lufthansa queue was massive it took us at least three hours to queue. That was once we realized that this 300m queue was for ALL Lufthansa flights. Usually you would see individual check in desks with flight numbers on them. This was a free for all with just 2 check ins for all the flights and with no flights individually showing at the desks themselves.

We eventually boarded our plane to Hamburg but then had to get of the plane to identify our luggage as the baggage handlers had removed some tags off some of the cases. Some travelers at this point then discovered their luggage was missing. It was a nightmare! We then traveled to Hamburg to be confronted with the news that we had missed our connecting flight to Manchester due to the delays caused in Barcelona and subsequently had to spend the night in Hamburg.

One thing to point out was that the Lufthansa staff in Hamburg were excellent and very helpful. They arranged the Hotel and transfer to and from the Hotel to the aiport, gave us vouchers for our evening meal and breakfast. They also arranged a mid morning flight via Düsseldorf the following day which meant that we didn't have to get up at 5:00am to catch an early flight. We eventually arrived back in the UK over 24 hours late.

All in all the cruise was excellent with the only problems being the noise from neighboring cabins and the delayed flight home. We really do believe however that NCL should have given us some warning of the strike action at Barcelona airport and the chaos that we would confront there. I know it's not there responsibility but we do feel that we had been dumped at the airport. Other than that a very enjoyable cruise experience.

[szdiver]

Thanks for a very nice review on your cruise. It will help with ours in October, as we are going to the same places. I cannot wait to see Prince Rainier's palace.....wow

[mygirlscats]

Wow...what a great review! We leave a week today to start our holiday in London, then we're boarding the Jewel August 27. It's so nice to read a review the mentions kids' needs, too! The vast majority of the reviews focus on more adult stuff, like waiting in line to see the David in Florence or the Vatican museums. I didn't even know you could take an excursion for a beach day and see the leaning tower of Pisa both...that would be perfect for us! After two weeks in England and France (not to mention a day in Rome, which we can't pass up), I anticipate my daughter will have seen enough museums, galleries and churches and (let's be honest) all three of us will be ready for a beach day! (I fear I am about to be struck dead by the spirit of my Art History professor from years gone by for saying that....)

 

Lest we forget...this is our holiday, folks!

 

I'm so glad I have forewarning about the thin walls...on our last cruise we were awakened each day by the early risers next door so I understand. We will be sure to bring earplugs in case we are next to party types.

 

Your posting is not the first to mention chaos at the airport during departure, even when there wasn't a strike. I think I'll take this as a lesson to disembark earlier than I think we really need to.

 

One question: you said that on your beach/pool day most of the shops were closed 1:30 to 4:00. Wouldn't that be about the time you were there? Does that mean you miss them entirely? And (by the bye), did NCL put on a lunch during that tour, or were you on your own?

 

Thanks again!!

[dustinjones]

Rosie Cruzin,

 

I'm glad to hear you were able to get out ok in Barcelona and made it home in one piece. We were on the same cruise and not so lucky, first our carry-on bag was stolen at a restaurant in the city (we dropped of our bags with Lufthansa first thing in the morning and returned back to Barcelona since we were on the 2:30 flight to Hamburg too) and then because of the ordeal with the baggage tags being ripped off we missed our flight to London in Hamburg and so Lufthansa put us on a British Airways flight and unfortunately our luggage did not make it. It's been 5 days and we're still waiting (although at this point I doubt we'll ever get them back, since technically British Airways in responsible for the lost luggage even though they probably never received the bags from Lufthansa.) All in all a horrible end to a great trip - in one day we managed to loose everything. And I completely agree about getting some warning from NCL before we disembarked. In fact they posted something on their website for passengers arriving on the 30th for the upcoming cruise, so they were certainly aware of it they day we left. I guess it was fairly typical of the way they handled anyone who didn't take one of their organized tours. On your own - truly means - completely on your own.

 

And I concur about the room noise. Our cabin was just above Fyzz and all night we had to listen to awful Karoke music playing below us.

[Rosie Cruzin]

"One question: you said that on your beach/pool day most of the shops were closed 1:30 to 4:00. Wouldn't that be about the time you were there? Does that mean you miss them entirely? And (by the bye), did NCL put on a lunch during that tour, or were you on your own?

 

Thanks again!!"

 

We arrived at the beach resort about 12:15 so if you wanted to shop you would have about 1 and a half hours or so. Our daughter was so keen to get to the sea we skipped most of the shops and made our way to the beach. Lunch wasn't provided on this tour but it was provided on the Naples tour we booked. For the beach tour we ate at the beach club where you could buy a variety of pizzas etc for around 6 Euros each. One thing I forgot to mention was that you must take your own towels with you as they are not provided at the beach. Most people seemed to have taken the blue & white striped towels that are available from the Jewel at counters near the pool side. I'm sure you will enjoy the cruise, as I said earlier this day in particular was a nice break as we visited Pisa in the morning and had the beach to look forward to in the afternoon. The pool at the beach club is also very nice and cool. There is a larger adult pool and a smaller pool for kids that has inflatable sponge tubes to help keep the kids afloat! Don't forget to get your ticket for the hair caps as without them you will not be able to go in the pool. The tickets can be obtained from a guy at the beach club, the tour guide will point him out to you. Hope you have a great time.

Ed

[Rosie Cruzin]

Rosie Cruzin,

 

I'm glad to hear you were able to get out ok in Barcelona and made it home in one piece. We were on the same cruise and not so lucky, first our carry-on bag was stolen at a restaurant in the city (we dropped of our bags with Lufthansa first thing in the morning and returned back to Barcelona since we were on the 2:30 flight to Hamburg too) and then because of the ordeal with the baggage tags being ripped off we missed our flight to London in Hamburg and so Lufthansa put us on a British Airways flight and unfortunately our luggage did not make it. It's been 5 days and we're still waiting (although at this point I doubt we'll ever get them back, since technically British Airways in responsible for the lost luggage even though they probably never received the bags from Lufthansa.) All in all a horrible end to a great trip - in one day we managed to loose everything. And I completely agree about getting some warning from NCL before we disembarked. In fact they posted something on their website for passengers arriving on the 30th for the upcoming cruise, so they were certainly aware of it they day we left. I guess it was fairly typical of the way they handled anyone who didn't take one of their organized tours. On your own - truly means - completely on your own.

 

And I concur about the room noise. Our cabin was just above Fyzz and all night we had to listen to awful Karoke music playing below us.

 

Sorry to hear that you had such an awful end to the holiday. I again agree that NCL should have given people some warning as to what to expect at the airport particularly as lots of people were traveling with kids. It would have been nice to see a representative of NCL at the airport to at least point everyone in the right direction, as without any direction it was a truly chaotic experience. I sincerely hope you receive your luggage soon. I think I will be dropping a line to NCL regarding the situation at the airport as I would have expected more from what appeared to be a very professional organization and operation for life on board the ship itself. Surely this professionalism should be extended to the whole holiday package including the flights and customer support at any airports used by NCL customers.

Ed

[ute_fan]

Rose -- Just a quick question for you. Which cabin number were you in, and do you have any photos of the cabin? We're staying in an outside view on deck 5 in November, and I just like as much advance information as possible.

 

TIA

[sweetpea-2]

wow, thanks for the excellent review !!!

[tomsafrica]

Rosie, we watched you sail away.

 

http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/tomsafrica/Sailing/

 

Hope you enjoy the pics!

[newmexicoNita]

We have just returned from this cruise that sailed on the 23rd of July. We stayed for one night in Barcelona which was a very interesting city. The only thing to be concerned about are the pick pockets, we met a chap who had his wallet stolen in Las Ramblas. You need to be particularly careful of 'friendly' people approaching you for a chat or even firing water pistols in the air. By the time you have looked up your wallet has gone! If you're careful though it's a safe and beautiful city. We boarded the Jewel at about 1:00pm on Sunday and the whole process took about 20 to 30 minutes. You'll be issued with a keycard (like a credit card) for each of the guest including any children. This keycards are very important as you will need them when dining, booking restaurant places and when leaving and arriving back on the ship from excursions. Our room was an ocean view room on Deck 5 port side. It was roomy and our daughter loved the bunk bed that was safe and secure. We have read comments that it is better to be on the starboard side so that you can see the ports as you approach in the morning. Well, unless you get up at 5:00am you want see much except for container lorries and the dock yard once the ship has docked. We preferred the port side as it's quiet (no noise from the dockyard) you can see other ships etc passing and lots of the surrounding port areas. We even saw other cruise ships pass by our window when we were in the dock.

 

All though we loved 99% of the cruise our biggest disappointment was the noise that we heard from neighboring cabins. We could hear everything, talking, doors closing, TV the lot. This was quite a problem particularly when getting up early for an excursion when you have been awakened by your neighbors returning to the room at 1:30 am.

 

The make up of the other cruisers appeared to be about 40% USA, 10% British, German and Japanese and about 50% Spanish. We went just after the kids had finished school so the pool area was packed out, but our daughter loved the pool even though it was very busy.

The decor of the ship was excellent if a bit loud and the ship was very clean.

 

We dined at the Tzar's Palace which was very nice and situated with great ocean views at the rear of the ship. Mama's Italian restaurant which was very good. Tango's which was my wifes favorite and Chin Chins which I liked. The food in all of the restaurants was very good. The only place we didn't really like was the Garden Café which was always busy and noisy a bit like a British Motorway Service Station. We preferred to get up a bit earlier and go to the Tzar's Palace for breakfast.We booked three of our tables in advance and had no problems at all, other times we just turned up at about 7:30pm and had a table within 5 minutes.

We also went to 2 shows the Band on the Run which was very good and a magician who was also very good ( sorry can't remember his name).

 

Excursions & Ports:-

 

Messina - We didn't take an excursion here just had a pleasant stroll around Messina itself, there was a carnival cruise ship docked at the same time as the Jewel and from the hills around Messina both ships looked very impressive side by side.

 

Naples - We took the the Taste & Treasures of Naples excursion. It was very good we drove into the center of Naples ( the traffic is something to behold) and stopped at the Naples San Gennaro Museum and Cathedral. This was a beautiful place with loads of history and ancient artefact's made from silver and gold - outstanding! We then walked through very small streets in the heart of the city to a point where we had about 45 Min's on our own. There are loads of small booths and shops selling loads of souvenirs and gifts. Scooters and even cars travel up and down theses narrow streets so keep your eyes open! The tour guide said that in Italy you get your driving license taken away from you when you reach 21 points but that the Neapolitans start at 20 points!!

We then rejoined the tour and made our way to for Pizza at a restaurant where wine and ample helpings of Pizza were available as part of the excursion package. We then made our way back to the ship. The tour was about 4 and half hours which was just about right with our six year old daughter who enjoyed the tour as well.

 

We cruised passed Stromboli Volcano in the evening. Lots of people were on deck and after about an half hour wait we saw the Volcano errupt with lava pouring down its side and spurting out of the top of the volcano. It was very spectacular and a site that you won't see too often!

 

We didn't travel to Rome the following day as we thought it was a bit too far with our daughter. So we spent a leisurely day swimming in the pool playing board games in the games room and exploring the ship as there is so much to see on board.

 

Livorno - We took the Italian Beach & Pisa tour which our daughter really enjoyed. This is a whole day tour, you travel by coach to Pisa in the morning which takes about 40 minutes and have about an hour to explore. It wasn't too busy so you could take your time viewing the magnificent leaning tower along with the other equally impressive buildings and site. We then drove to Viarreggio which took about 30 minutes. At Viareggio which is popular today, both with Italians and foreign visitors, there is a beach house where you can relax and eat as well as lots of shops in the area, most of which close between 1:30 and 4:00pm. You are given a token that gives you access to a part of the beach that is allocated to NCL. You have your own beach umbrella and are given pool caps to cover your hair if you use the beach clubs pool (the caps are compulsory in Italy). We went in the sea which was really warm and also spent time in the pools which were so much quieter and relaxing than the ships pool. This was our daughters favorite day of the cruise.

 

Villefranche-sur-Mer - This is a very attractive port on the Côte d'Azur. A couple of features that make it attractive to visitors are the seaside, with long sandy Beach's, terrace cafés and restaurants, and the very nice old town. We took the 4 hour Highlights of Monaco & Monte Carlo tour. Wow! what can I say, how the other half live! This was a very good tour although the French lady in charge was a bit disorganized in arranging meeting points and times in both Monaco and Monte Carlo. We amongst other guests nearly missed the coach in Monaco as she (the tour guide) just disappeared and we were left to make a mad rush to the coach. On other excursions the tour guides wrote everyones names down and ticked everyone off the list before the coach left for the return journey to the ship. On this excursion there was uncertainty as to who was or wasn't missing. Anyway, the coastline in this area is breathtaking with small coves and the Alps themselves falling into the sea. We first went to Monaco and started the tour outside Jacques Cousteau's Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, we then made our way to the Cathedral were the 700 year reign of the Grimaldi dynasty is encapsulated. This is were Princess Grace is laid to rest next to Prince Raynier. We then moved on to the old fortified town, with the Prince's Palace, the ramparts, which are about 5 minutes walk from the Cathedral. This again was spectacular with views over Monaco and Monte Carlo in the near distance. After about 30 minutes we traveled to Monte Carlo to view the riches of the famous Casino and the luxurious Hotel de Paris which was surrounded by Rolls Royce's, Bentleys and Ferrari's! This was a beautiful and clean place that we will definitely return to.

We then returned to the ship by coach and boarded one of the small lifeboats back to the Jewel (as the Ships drops anchor in the bay itself).

The holiday was almost over, the disembarkation from the ship was very well organized. You are given colored tags for your luggage dark green , red tags etc. In the morning they call people with green tags etc to leave at certain times. The whole process was simple and efficient. You collect your bags from the dock yard and head for the coach. This is for us when it all went down hill!

We were supposed to be on coach 6 that didn't appear to exist so we eventually ended up on coach 17 for our transfer to the airport. We were we were dumped on the sidewalk outside the Barcelona airport terminal. We entered the airport to be confronted by a completely chaotic scenes with thousands people waiting to check in. There had been a strike ongoing for a few days. We had no warning of this from NCL at all and were basically left to fend for ourselves. We were traveling to Manchester in the UK with Lufthansa via Hamburg. The Lufthansa queue was massive it took us at least three hours to queue. That was once we realized that this 300m queue was for ALL Lufthansa flights. Usually you would see individual check in desks with flight numbers on them. This was a free for all with just 2 check ins for all the flights and with no flights individually showing at the desks themselves.

We eventually boarded our plane to Hamburg but then had to get of the plane to identify our luggage as the baggage handlers had removed some tags off some of the cases. Some travelers at this point then discovered their luggage was missing. It was a nightmare! We then traveled to Hamburg to be confronted with the news that we had missed our connecting flight to Manchester due to the delays caused in Barcelona and subsequently had to spend the night in Hamburg.

One thing to point out was that the Lufthansa staff in Hamburg were excellent and very helpful. They arranged the Hotel and transfer to and from the Hotel to the aiport, gave us vouchers for our evening meal and breakfast. They also arranged a mid morning flight via Düsseldorf the following day which meant that we didn't have to get up at 5:00am to catch an early flight. We eventually arrived back in the UK over 24 hours late.

All in all the cruise was excellent with the only problems being the noise from neighboring cabins and the delayed flight home. We really do believe however that NCL should have given us some warning of the strike action at Barcelona airport and the chaos that we would confront there. I know it's not there responsibility but we do feel that we had been dumped at the airport. Other than that a very enjoyable cruise experience.

I am very sorry you had delays due to the strike: I am not too sure it would have helped had NCL given you any information. I do understand your feelings. Both our daughters work for the airlines, actually one works for the reservation system, not directly with an airline anymore. I heard there were a couple of rough days in BArcelona. As for your cruise and the ship overall, she is really nice, probably my favorite out of 20 plus cruises. Again, glad you had a good experience; agree with the buffet, it is very busy, noisy and nothing great, but what buffet is worth writing home about? NMnita

[Rosie Cruzin]

Rose -- Just a quick question for you. Which cabin number were you in, and do you have any photos of the cabin? We're staying in an outside view on deck 5 in November, and I just like as much advance information as possible.

 

TIA

 

Here's a link to some pics, our cabin was 5530.

 

http://community.webshots.com/album/552845263xfQsXZ

[Rosie Cruzin]

Rosie, we watched you sail away.

 

http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h307/tomsafrica/Sailing/

 

Hope you enjoy the pics!

 

Thanks for the great pictures, were they taken in Barcelona?

[tomsafrica]

Yep, we were down in the beachfront area when we suddenly realised that it was about the time that the Jewel would be leaving for her next voyage so we went up one of the towers that takes the cable car up to Montjiuc and watched her sail away from there. It was a great viewspot! I may have spotted you on the deck but I'm not sure...:D

[7SeasLover]

What would you have done differently had NCL said, "Oh, by the way there's a strike at the Barcelona airport and the scene is chaotic"?

 

I often wonder what benefit is derived from having this knowledge beforehand other than to fret and worry. It's not as if you can suddenly change your plans (like learning there's a major crash on a freeway and it's shut down - you can take alternate routes and join thousands of others).

 

I don't mean to be cynical, but what would the point have been to have had NCL tell you? What would you have done differently had you known? We're leaving in 8 weeks and suspect the Barcelona strike will impact us as well, but we still have to leave from there. We still have to fly to CDG where a strike could and has happened in October.

 

I certainly enjoyed reading your review - I can't get enough info on the Jewel! Thanks!

[Rosie Cruzin]

What would you have done differently had NCL said, "Oh, by the way there's a strike at the Barcelona airport and the scene is chaotic"?

 

I often wonder what benefit is derived from having this knowledge beforehand other than to fret and worry. It's not as if you can suddenly change your plans (like learning there's a major crash on a freeway and it's shut down - you can take alternate routes and join thousands of others).

 

I don't mean to be cynical, but what would the point have been to have had NCL tell you? What would you have done differently had you known? We're leaving in 8 weeks and suspect the Barcelona strike will impact us as well, but we still have to leave from there. We still have to fly to CDG where a strike could and has happened in October.

I certainly enjoyed reading your review - I can't get enough info on the Jewel! Thanks!

 

If we had known we would have expected a long wait, gone straight to the Lufthansa representative to find out whats going on ie we would have been better prepared particularly as we had a young child with us. NCL were at fault for not warning their customers of the problems a head of them, their attitude in my opinion was very unprofessional. Knowledge gives you the chance to make other decisions, knowledge after all is power - the power to plan in advance and make other / better decisions.

[tomsafrica]

Very true Rosie although in NCL's defence I have to say that particular strike was very unexpected and was sprung on everyone totally without any warning. Given the limited time that they had I would imagine they were occupied with their own air bookings. And in any case marching up to the Lufthansa desk probably would have stressed you even more because after an hour there you'd have just been back in exactly the same place in the queue - only behind another 800 people!

[7SeasLover]

See, this is what I mean. Knowing in advance of a problem like that does absolutely nothing for you. There wouldn't have been a thing you could have done. Even going up to a rep would have been pointless as I'm sure hundreds were doing the same thing.

 

I think, in this case, knowing in advance would have been nothing more than leariing of this bad circumstance in advance. It would have netted you nothing.

 

I just hope it's over or will be soon as we'll be there in due course.

[SteveS]

Hi Rosie,

 

We were also on the Jewel July 23rd cruise. Why didn't you post on the roll call?

Our cabin 9056 was very quiet except when the life baots were lowered in Villefranch

After hearing your story I'm glad we stayed in Barcelona 2 days post cruise. We had a wonderful flight to Newark on Continental. They have their counter in a new part of the airport. No lines! And an empty departure lounge.

[tomsafrica]

Hi Rosie,

 

We were also on the Jewel July 23rd cruise. Why didn't you post on the roll call?

Our cabin 9056 was very quiet except when the life baots were lowered in Villefranch

After hearing your story I'm glad we stayed in Barcelona 2 days post cruise. We had a wonderful flight to Newark on Continental. They have their counter in a new part of the airport. No lines! And an empty departure lounge.

I noticed that from the roll calls - Rosie did start a roll call but didn't notice there was one already running. I think because the English way is to say 23/7 and the US way is to say 7/23 so she didn't noticed you and you didn't notice her :confused: - how sad!

 

The nice thing about an extension of a couple of days in Barcelona after the hectic port days on the Jewel is that you actually get a chance to explore a city properly without constantly worrying about the time and getting back to the boat. I would go back to Barcelona any time, although hopefully next time it won't be in the middle of a heatwave:cool:

[TahitiChris]

Rosie,

 

I also enjoyed your review. My family and I will be on the Jewel next June.

 

My question concerns your air arrangements. Did you book your flights or did you have NCL book them for you?

 

Thanks.

 

Chris

[Rosie Cruzin]

Rosie,

 

I also enjoyed your review. My family and I will be on the Jewel next June.

 

My question concerns your air arrangements. Did you book your flights or did you have NCL book them for you?

 

Thanks.

 

Chris

 

I'm glad you enjoyed the review I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time next June. With regards to our flights all of them were booked through NCL themselves.